There are two types of expedition available in South East Sulawesi. One option is to visit the forests Buton for one week and then to head to either the Wakatobi Marine National Park or the reefs of South Buton for the second week. A second option is to combine the two marine sites, spending a week at each.
Indonesia Terrestrial and Hoga Schools’ Booklet
Indonesia Terrestrial and Bau Bau Schools’ Booklet
During the first week the teams will complete training and surveys including:
In addition to the above practicals the students will also complete a course in camp on Wallacea Wildlife including lectures on Indonesia and the Wallacea region, plant and insect biodiversity, vertebrate diversity, impacts and invasives and a conservation synthesis. All of the lectures are based on primary research conducted in the area.
During their marine week students will be completing one of the following options:
A combination of both our marine research sites can be used for a marine only expedition. Students can spend some of their time working towards a more in depth research project in addition to dive training, partaking in a reef ecology course and assisting with a range of research projects.
During this week the students will complete a PADI Open Water dive training course, or a coral reef ecology course with in-water practicals or a PADI referral course followed by the second part of the Indo-Pacific reef ecology course.
In this week the students will be able to complete mini research investigations and will also have sessions with the reef monitoring teams as follows:
The Wallacea region comprises islands of the central part of the Indonesian archipelago that are separated by deep ocean trenches which prevented them from being joined to the main continental land masses during the lowered sea levels of the Ice Ages. As a result of the long period of isolation, a large number of unique species evolved. The forests of the Wallacea region are one of the least biologically studied areas in the world and one of the most likely places to discover vertebrate species new to science.
Operation Wallacea first started surveying the forests of Buton Island in SE Sulawesi in 1995. In 2004 these surveys resulted in a US$1 million World Bank/GEF grant being obtained to establish an example of best practice conservation management for a lowland forest. This project worked only in the central part of the island and finished in 2008. An assessment of the various quantifiable conservation targets showed that 90%+ of the targets had been achieved and in many cases significantly exceeded. Since that point, Opwall has continued with monitoring the abundance and diversity of key taxa in both the central and northern forests of Buton Island. All the Opwall gathered data on the northern and central forests of Buton is being submitted support an application to fund a REDD+ application to protect the carbon and biodiversity of the Buton forests and ensure that local communities have a financial benefit from this conservation programme. In 2019 survey teams will be completing surveys on the transect network at a series of camps spread across central and northern Buton. Most of these survey sites have been monitored in previous years and will provide annual data to assess changes in the biodiversity over time. The rapid assessment mobile team in the northwest corner of Buton will be completing biodiversity surveys in these forests building upon primary research conducted in 2016 and they are the first ever surveys in this area.
There is a triangle of reefs in Eastern Indonesia that have the highest diversity of hard coral genera, the proxy commonly used to assess overall diversity of coral reefs anywhere in the world. Both the marine research stations being used by the Opwall teams are in the centre of this triangle. The South Buton Marine Training and Research Centre has established a series of standard monitoring sites on reefs south of Bau Bau and around the surrounding small islands, with the objective being to use the data to develop plans for conserving these reefs. The Hoga Island Marine Research Station is located in the heart of the Wakatobi Marine National Park. Over the last 20 years, a series of scientists have been based at this site during the Opwall survey seasons and as a result, this is now the most published site in the Coral Triangle. For the last 14 years a series of constant monitoring sites around Hoga and eastern Kaledupa have been monitored for macroinvertebrates, fish communities, coral cover and community structure. The 2019 season will complete this monitoring plus some additional research projects.
The South Buton marine research centre opened in 2013 and has established a series of standard monitoring sites on reefs south of Bau Bau and around the adjacent islands. These are being monitored annually and it is hoped to use the data to demonstrate that a number of the reefs in this area are of high conservation value. Preliminary social studies have commenced as of 2017, involving interviewing fishermen and other local stakeholders to gauge areas of high fishing pressure and the preferred catch methods. The next step is then to begin implementing some conservation management strategies involving all of the local stakeholders in the near future. There is also a small team at this site working in collaboration with the Global Fin Print Project, which monitors shark and ray populations through the use of baited remote underwater video systems.
The Hoga Island marine research station is located in the heart of the Wakatobi Marine National Park. Over the last 20 years a series of scientists have been based at this site during the Opwall survey seasons and have built up the publications emanating from the site to a level which is unsurpassed by any other marine research site in the Coral Triangle. These data and publications have been used to promote the biodiversity value of the Wakatobi, raise its profile internationally and in particular enable it to be designated as a Biosphere Reserve. For the last 12 years a series of constant monitoring sites around Hoga and eastern Kaledupa have been monitored for fish communities, coral cover and community structure and macro-invertebrates. In addition annual fisheries monitoring is being completed to assess changes in the fisheries particularly as some of the management initiatives developed by Opwall (e.g. buy outs of fishing licences and carrageenan extraction) begin to hopefully have an impact. Alongside these long-term monitoring projects there are also newer projects such as a coral restoration program and seagrass monitoring to provide a wide range of opportunities to all.
The costs of a school group expedition can be highly variable. There is a standard fee paid to Opwall for all expeditions but the location you are flying from, the size of your group, and how you wish to pay all impact the overall cost.
You can choose to book the expedition as a package (which includes your international flights) or you can organise your travel yourself and just pay us for the expedition related elements.
If you are booking your expedition as a package, you also have the option of being invoiced as a group, or on an individual basis.
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